Required content

AP® Gov foundational documents

The course has 13 required foundational documents. You need to know what each one argues and how to use it as evidence, especially in the argument essay, where the question lists the documents you can choose from.

New for the May 2027 exam: Federalist No. 39, The Wealth of Nations, Emancipation Proclamation and Gettysburg Address. Older review books won't have them.

All 13 documents

Declaration of Independence (1776, mainly Thomas Jefferson)
Articles of Confederation (written 1777, in effect 1781)
U.S. Constitution (written 1787, ratified 1788)
Federalist No. 10 (1787, James Madison)
Brutus No. 1 (1787, Anti-Federalist, probably Robert Yates)
Federalist No. 51 (1788, James Madison)
Federalist No. 39 (1788, James Madison)New
Federalist No. 70 (1788, Alexander Hamilton)
Federalist No. 78 (1788, Alexander Hamilton)
The Wealth of Nations (1776, Adam Smith)New
Emancipation Proclamation (1863, Abraham Lincoln)New
Gettysburg Address (1863, Abraham Lincoln)New
“Letter from a Birmingham Jail” (1963, Martin Luther King Jr.)

Declaration of Independence

1776 · mainly Thomas Jefferson

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Read the full text: National Archives (opens in a new tab)

Main idea: People have natural, unalienable rights such as life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; government gets its power from the consent of the governed; and when government destroys those rights, people may change or abolish it.
How to use it: Use it as evidence for natural rights, social contract, popular sovereignty and limited government.

Articles of Confederation

written 1777, in effect 1781

“The said states hereby severally enter into a firm league of friendship with each other, for their common defence, the security of their Liberties, and their mutual and general welfare”

Read the full text: National Archives (opens in a new tab)

Main idea: A loose 'league of friendship' among sovereign states with a one-house Congress, one vote per state, no power to tax or regulate trade between states, no executive or national courts, nine of 13 states to pass major laws and all 13 to amend.
How to use it: Use it as evidence of what goes wrong when the central government is too weak, as Shays' Rebellion showed.

U.S. Constitution

written 1787, ratified 1788

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility”

Read the full text: National Archives (opens in a new tab)

Main idea: A stronger national government with separated powers, checks and balances, federalism, limited government and popular sovereignty ('We the People'), built from compromises and changeable through Article V.
How to use it: Use specific articles and clauses as evidence for almost any argument about how power is divided.

Federalist No. 10

1787 · James Madison

“Extend the sphere, and you take in a greater variety of parties and interests; you make it less probable that a majority of the whole will have a common motive to invade the rights of other citizens”

Read the full text: Library of Congress (opens in a new tab)

Main idea: Factions are unavoidable because they come from human nature, especially unequal property, and removing their causes would destroy liberty, so government must control their effects. A large republic with elected representatives includes so many interests that no single faction can easily take over.
How to use it: Use it for pluralist democracy, interest groups, representation and why a big republic protects liberty.

Brutus No. 1

1787 · Anti-Federalist, probably Robert Yates

Read the full text: Teaching American History (opens in a new tab)

Main idea: A republic as large as the United States can't truly represent its people; the Necessary and Proper and Supremacy Clauses would let the national government swallow the states; and distant representatives would be an elite out of touch with ordinary people.
How to use it: Use it for states' rights, participatory democracy, fears of national power and the case for a bill of rights.

Federalist No. 51

1788 · James Madison

“If men were angels, no government would be necessary.”

Read the full text: Library of Congress (opens in a new tab)

Main idea: Because people aren't angels, government must be built so ambition checks ambition. Separation of powers, checks and balances, a two-house legislature and federalism (a 'double security' for rights) keep any one branch or group from abusing power.
How to use it: Use it for separation of powers, checks and balances, federalism and limited government.

Federalist No. 39

New for 2027

1788 · James Madison

“The proposed Constitution, therefore, is, in strictness, neither a national nor a federal Constitution, but a composition of both.”

Read the full text: Library of Congress (opens in a new tab)

Main idea: The Constitution creates a republic whose power comes from the people, and it is partly national and partly federal: for example, the House represents the people, the Senate represents the states, ratification is by the states, and the government acts directly on individuals.
How to use it: Use it to answer the charge that the Constitution erases the states, and for federalism and republicanism.

Federalist No. 70

1788 · Alexander Hamilton

“Energy in the Executive is a leading character in the definition of good government.”

Read the full text: Library of Congress (opens in a new tab)

Main idea: Good government needs an energetic executive, and one president (not a council) can act with decision, speed and secrecy, and is easier to hold accountable.
How to use it: Use it for arguments about presidential power, the unitary executive and national security.

Federalist No. 78

1788 · Alexander Hamilton

“It may truly be said to have neither FORCE nor WILL, but merely judgment”

Read the full text: Library of Congress (opens in a new tab)

Main idea: The judiciary is the least dangerous branch because it controls neither the military nor money, only judgment. Judges serving for life during good behavior can stay independent, and courts must treat laws that conflict with the Constitution as void.
How to use it: Use it for judicial independence, life tenure and judicial review.

The Wealth of Nations

New for 2027

1776 · Adam Smith

“he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention.”

Read the full text: Project Gutenberg (opens in a new tab)

Main idea: When people pursue their own interests in free, competitive markets, they end up benefiting society as if guided by an 'invisible hand'; specialization (division of labor) raises output; and government's main jobs are defense, justice and some public works, not directing the economy.
How to use it: Use it for free enterprise, limited government in the economy and debates over regulation between liberals, conservatives and libertarians.

Emancipation Proclamation

New for 2027

1863 · Abraham Lincoln

“all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free”

Read the full text: National Archives (opens in a new tab)

Main idea: As a war measure under his power as commander in chief, Lincoln declared enslaved people in areas still in rebellion free as of January 1, 1863, and let Black men join the Union army. It did not cover loyal border states or Union-held areas; the Thirteenth Amendment (1865) ended slavery everywhere.
How to use it: Use it for executive power in wartime and for government protecting minority rights.

Gettysburg Address

New for 2027

1863 · Abraham Lincoln

“that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Main idea: In a short speech at a Civil War cemetery, Lincoln tied the war to the Declaration's promise that all men are created equal and called for a 'new birth of freedom' so that government of, by and for the people would survive.
How to use it: Use it for popular sovereignty, equality and representative democracy.

“Letter from a Birmingham Jail”

1963 · Martin Luther King Jr.

Main idea: Written in jail after his arrest at a Birmingham protest, it answers clergy who called the protests untimely: people have a moral duty to break unjust laws openly, peacefully and accepting the penalty; waiting has meant never; and injustice anywhere threatens justice everywhere.
How to use it: Use it for civil disobedience, participatory democracy, social movements, equal protection and minority rights.